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Will a set of PIAA bulbs really be brighter than stock bulbs
Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 7:43 pm
by trendyincdotbiz
Ok , Ive had an arsenal of Subies and VW's and always wanted to upgrade the output of the stock headlights.
Ive tried Sylverstars and wasnt impressed. They really didnt seem to make a difference .
Was wondering if PIAA bulbs will make an improved noticable difference in the stock headlight assembly of my 91 legacy.
Any imput is appreciated.
I just dont want to shell out the big bucks for PIAA bulbs if the improvement is minimal .
Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 7:48 pm
by Legacy777
No....not really.
The 90-91 Headlights just suck....there's really no other way to say it. The 92-94 are better. If you want better headlights, your best option is to buy a set of EDM headlights and swap them into your US legacy. When you do that, you'll be able to run the H4 bulbs and could put in some new wiring directly from the battery to reduce voltage drop.
Here's some pics from my conversion.
http://main.experiencetherave.com/subar ... dmproject/
Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 7:53 pm
by trendyincdotbiz
Are these a direct replacement or is there modifications I need to do?
Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2008 7:37 pm
by Legacy777
Only modification is the wiring, and specifically the headlight bulb plug.....and city lights if you want to hook them up.
Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2008 7:38 pm
by trendyincdotbiz
gotchya. Off to the junkyard
Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2008 7:44 pm
by Legacy777
You won't find them on any cars in the US. Only European cars. They come up for sale in the parts shed every now and then.
Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2008 11:34 pm
by Buffman
only bulbs that are brighter are ones that are rated for higher wattage. PIAA just advertises that their bulbs are the equviliant to a certain wattage when they're just stock wattage.
Matt
Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 4:40 pm
by BXSS
Ebay HID's can be had for $60.
I have 2 set of these om y OBS-t & they work well.
Bi Xenon headlights - light is not annoying to other drivers on the & HID fogs which are kinda bright.
I liked these soo much I got a set for my 125cc scooter!
Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 7:04 pm
by Legacy777
I wouldn't recommend trying to retrofit HID's into your stock headlamps.
I'd suggest reading over some of the stuff on Daniel Stern's site.
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech ... bulbs.html
Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 7:55 pm
by Buffman
If you buy a Low/HI HID kit for the H4 housings that uses the shield to mount the bulb, they're actually decent. You can still see the cutoff with them.
Of course the low H4 HID bulbs sometimes just mount to the housings and those would be glare city.
Read up as mentioned on Daniels Site. HIDS in almost all halogen housings suck. Glare, horrible pattern etc. Only housings it works okay on are the H4s (again wth the shield) or the H9 90m Hella projectors. As with most automotive stuff HIDs in Halogen housings aren't legal. Then again, no Cats, and so forth aren't either
I've had some in cheap fog lights, and while more light it's all over, and you have to aim them down or people will flash you.
Ones in my projector softened the cutoff but there's no glare mainly because the h9 puts out 2500 lumens. The ones I have in my Legacy now are decent too. A 9004 housing or something else forgetabout it.
Since I work second shift, I'm not driving around in the winter with shit lights. So I threw a LO/Hi HID kit in it (4500K, none of this 6K+ crap) and called it a day.
Posted: Tue Dec 23, 2008 1:51 pm
by theflystyle
thanks for the pics josh, i was wondering about my final headlight adjustments from awhile back but my beam patterns look like yours with the ___/ ___/ looking thing.
Posted: Tue Dec 23, 2008 4:41 pm
by dscoobydoo
I am pretty sure all the legacy stock beam patterns look like that.
Posted: Tue Dec 23, 2008 8:22 pm
by Buffman
mine does..
Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 11:05 pm
by Snowolf2
Would the PIAA lights make a good difference on a 93 Leg? Cause I am tired of not being able to see 15ft ahead of me at night. I refurbished the headlights already too!
Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 11:33 pm
by Buffman
No, they're not any brighter than stock unless you increase the actual wattage. PIAA just mights the light whiter claiming similar outputs to higher wattage bulbs. You'll need true higher wattage bulbs to have more lumens.
Posted: Wed May 13, 2009 7:10 am
by Create768
Is this bulb consumes less power than the other bulbs.,?
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